It's my potty, I can cry if I want to

I'm a believer in letting little kids choose their own adventure, so to speak, when it comes to things that won't hurt them. Markers (washable) instead of crayons, ok fine. Read a book or play with playdough. Mismatched clothes. Fine. (None of this is consistent with my control-freak nature, but I get by.) Anyway, this kid-in-charge attitude has extended to sleep training and breastfeeding, and now to potty training. (I guess it's my take on attachment parenting.)

Unfortunately, we started potty training about ten months ago and sometimes I think we've gone nowhere. I got the potty out when Emily started doing her business in the bathtub at about 18 months. Fortunately, she knew right away what she was supposed to do on the potty. The only catch is that she only uses the potty when the mood strikes her. The more I mention it, the less likely she is to go. I let her choose between pull-ups, training pants, and underwear but her behavior seems the same regardless of what kind of underpants she is wearing. She's not concerned about "keeping Dora (or Tinkerbelle or Elmo) clean" and all the stickers in the world wouldn't tear her away from her toys when she needs to "go." Today she refused to put on a pull-up and also refused to go to the bathroom before we left the house; several hours later, we were pulling over to change wet pants. We've gone through several day stretches without pee accidents, but she nearly always poops in her pants. I think she's just got more important things to do than stop what she's doing to go potty. I keep hoping that one day she'll wake up and say, "ya know, I'm tired of messing up my pants." I just hope that happens before I run out of patience.